Duet Missing Scenes
by MzRenai
Summary: Convincing Ronon to stay, cultural misunderstandings, curses, and drills... follows from my 'Runner Missing Scenes'
1. There is a Problem

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with nor do I own any part of Stargate, Stargate SG1 or its' movies, Stargate Atlantis, or any of the characters. My stories are for purely entertainment purposes, with no monetary gain. No copyright infringement is intended. This story is based on the episode "Duet" and continues from my _'Runner Missing Scenes_'. The lines of dialog you recognize are from the show (thanks to GateWorld Transcripts).

-OO-

_**Prior to Duet:**_

Lt. Colonel Sheppard strode purposely into Dr. Rodney McKay's lab. The lab was empty except for the scientist and Teyla Emmagan who glanced at him with an amused smile, an amused smile that instantly made him react and he smiled back, a bit too eagerly. "John." she nodded at him in greeting and he just kept smiling at her.

Rodney rolled his eyes at his teammates but they remained clueless, "So John, why are you interrupting my extremely important work?"

"Huh?"

"The team meeting… why are we having it?"

"Oh, right! Specialist Ronon Dex. What do you think of him?"

"Think of him? I don't."

"Rodney." Teyla admonishes, but with that graceful lilt to her voice so no offence is taken.

McKay closed out a file and shut down his laptop before looking directly at Sheppard, "What?"

John squirmed a bit, "Well, we did bring him home…"

"He's not a puppy." the doctor snapped, of course with that hair… he shook his head at the image of Ronon being a giant puppy.

"What is a puppy?"

"A hairy, four legged, pet with a tail; drools a lot. Look Colonel, not really sure what you want to hear… I thought you were sending him home. You know… potential allies with him being grateful for us saving him from the Wraith and all."

"Ah, see we tried that." At Teyla and Rodney's curious looks, John continued. "The Wraith had almost leveled the city the gate is in and later we sent a UAV to get a better look… let's just say the Wraith made sure no one was left."

"City? You mean they were advanced beyond tents and huts? What a shame… we might still be able to find something… obviously the Wraith thought they had something…" Rodney sputtered briefly to a stop as Teyla was glaring at him, "What? What did I say?"

Teyla turned away from McKay and focused on Sheppard. "I do not understand the problem."

Sheppard wouldn't look at her and she had to strain to hear what he was mumbling. "Well, uhm, with the exploding city illusion and the IOA's new refugee policy… we're not really sure what to do with him."

"I still do not understand."

Sheppard was starting to look green but resolutely kept his mouth shut. Rodney sighed this is why he hated team meetings. Clearing his throat so Teyla would have to look at him, McKay began, "Dex is a security risk so the military wants him detained here on Atlantis. The IOA, the governing body of our illustrious expedition, has deemed our damaged city, supply issues, manpower, etc., insufficient to handle refugees. In short the IOA won't allow him to stay and the military won't allow him to leave."

Teyla blinked, she had given her word… "You allowed my people to stay."

John and Rodney glanced at each other; neither mentioned the guilt they all had for bringing the Wraith down upon the Athosians so early, causing them to flee almost forced to Atlantis. "Well, that was sort of a different situation. We had just arrived, the city was sinking, and …" He left the 'we didn't know what we were doing' part unsaid.

Rodney finished for him, "The IOA wasn't actually in contact then and let's face it you guys had food."

Teyla was too aghast to even be upset with Rodney's bluntness.

John squirmed again, "I thought that … maybe we could come up with something so as not to involve the powers that be."

"He is welcome to stay with my people."

John froze, his mouth gapping; Rodney took one look at him and realized his reputation of being blunt beyond social acceptance was about to save his team leader.

"The military won't accept that. By now they've read our reports: how he took you both down twice, then immediately after surgery, having been unconscious during my rapid fire and screaming, still beat John to my position; not to mention he was winning against a Wraith hyped Ford and the whole hostage thing, what I'm saying is…"

"They do not trust my people to keep him, even with the gate being controlled by Earthers." Neither Rodney nor John would look at her.

John cleared his throat, "With Ford escaping and the afore mentioned reports, they don't trust us to keep him either; and ah, he kinda told me already that he could escape if he wanted too."

"I see."

The silence was extremely uncomfortable, John didn't even squirm nor did he notice when Teyla looked directly at him, "If Ronon had something the military or IOA thought would be beneficial?"

Sheppard's head popped up and Rodney thought both John and Teyla were going to strain something trying to find anything beneficial about Ronon. It was almost comical when they burst out simultaneously:

"He had that cool gun!"

"He recognized the Ancestors' technology."

Rodney shook his head, sorry to disappoint them, "The gun can be studied better without him and lots of people recognize Ancient tech."

The silence grew again, "Surely, Elizabeth cannot be ordered to … "

Sighing, Rodney broke into Teyla's lament. "You said he was military. The SGC allowed O'Neill to keep Teal'c." Rodney sighed again, at John's amazed look. "You really should read the SGC's mission reports, not all of them obviously, just the important ones. I have all of Samantha Carter's on my personal laptop, with unbreakable encryption of course, tried to read Jackson's but, well not the same face so… just lots of words… the point is O'Neill sold the higher ups on the fact that Teal'c had valuable knowledge of the enemy and other worlds."

With Ronon's situation on his mind and still smarting from the loss of Ford, the Lt. Colonel didn't even seem to hear Rodney's blatant security breach, but the smack on the back still smarted. "Great thinking! I'll talk to Lorne, he served at the SGC under General O'Neill. For now we make Dex comfortable, feel him out about what he knows and what his skills are, and if things pan out the way we think they will, I'll approach Dr. Weir about having him on our team."

"Our team?" but Sheppard didn't hear him already heading out the door on his radio, Teyla gave him the school teacher look before leaving as well, "Right, our team it is then." Rodney mumbled as he rebooted his laptop.

"Rodney!"

Rodney jumped and keyed his radio. "What now?"

"Gear up, another planet's been hit."

"Well, obviously it is too late to warn them and you just said the IOA won't allow refugees, so what is the point of me going?"

"First you're on my team, second we can offer medical assistance and aid without bringing anyone back here, third we need Intel – now that the Wraith aren't gearing up to head to Earth are they still culling whole societies or are they only harvesting and …"

"Fine! I'm on my way."


	2. The Invitation

_**Duet Missing Scenes:**_

"Sir!"

Lt. Colonel John Sheppard stopped to let his new security officer catch up with him, "Lorne."

"Dr. Beckett wanted me to inform you that Dr. McKay is fine, apparently the beaming process stuns its victims."

"Makes since, don't want your food to escape before you put it in the fridge." John cringed, he had meant to be flippant but that had come out a bit too callous.

Seeing the cringe, Major Evan Lorne gave his commander a cheeky grin, "No, sir."

John smiled back, "Actually, Major I wanted to talk to you about a few things…" seeing the Major stiffen to almost a parade stance he continued with less formality, "Relax Evan, everything's fine. I wanted to talk about Specialist Ronon Dex."

"Teyla said, you thought he could escape."

"I said Ford had escaped and that Dex had informed me that he thought he could escape."

"So you don't see him escaping?"

"Ford was hopped up on Wraith enzyme and staged his escape at a time when we were exhausted and involved in a much more consuming standoff with a Wraith armada, he knew the city in and out, plus everyone knew and liked him. Currently, we have the highest military presence this expedition has ever had, there is no Wraith armada, Dex doesn't know the city, nor does he have anyone's loyalty."

Evan nodded, Dex didn't stand a chance. "He would be neutralized before he ever made it through the gate."

"That doesn't mean he wouldn't do a hell of a lot of damage first. Personally, I'd rather not have to neutralize him; I'd rather utilize his assets."

"Assets?"

"Apparently, these 'Runners' literally run between planets with varying amounts of Wraith hunting them personally, at any particular time; he not only survived 7 years alone with a Wraith tracking device implanted in him, but he successfully fought back! He's got that mean looking sword which I'm sure he doesn't carry just for the cool factor; and let's face it, I doubt they just handed him that gun."

Lorne's eyes widened, "You think he'll willingly share his knowledge?"

"I'm hoping. After all he didn't kill Teyla and me, he kept his word and tracked down Ford, he rescued McKay, he's ex-military, hates the Wraith, and as far as we can tell he has no place to go. McKay mentioned a similar situation with Teal'c and General O'Neill; since you were at the SGC you have any ideas?"

"Yeah. Teal'c once told me the biggest factor for staying and working with Earth was the trust he has in General O'Neill; second was that he thought the Tauri had a chance to make a difference and that he could help make that difference."

"Tauri?"

"What Goa'ulds call humans. I'm not sure we have Dex's complete trust…" John just rolled his eyes, so Evan continued, "but he did hand over his weapons and come back to Atlantis with us. General O'Neill trusted Teal'c with his life, maybe we need to show Dex that we trust him too."

"That's a start."

"McKay said he was winning the fight against Ford*, I'll schedule him in a few training sessions see some of his moves, maybe we can even have him give some simple instruction on effective tactics for fighting Wraith or a class on edible Pegasus plants for survival circumstances."

"Good, good – actually I'll personally handle how he does in hand to hand and take him through the armory, because if this works he'll be on my team. I'll let you handle the rest. In the mean time we'll give him back his stuff with the caveat that it has to stay in his room unless I approve otherwise and we'll ditch the extra guards and just keep the 2 man escort."

Lorne nodded his agreement but had a look of reservation, "Does he even want to stay here?"

"I hope so. The IOA has made it clear that Dex isn't welcome and Caldwell's still pissed about Ford I really don't want to see his reaction to our disregard of security protocols …" John ran a nervous hand through his hair, "Dr. Weir is in a spot and she doesn't even know it yet; I brought Dex here, I don't want to be responsible for another de…"

Evan didn't let him finish, "No sir! We'll convince him to give us a run sir."

"That's what I'm about to try and accomplish. You know where he is now?"

"The mess sir."

"Stop sir-ing me all the time Lorne."

"Yes sir." Evan's face turned bright red and John just smirked and left the Major standing in the hall.

-OO-

Walking into the commissary it was easy to spy Ronon Dex, a huge menacing looking man, sitting alone, being watched over by a couple of guards, and scarfing his food down like a starving man. The last thought gave John pause, but he put his own tray down and sat opposite the man anyway. Ronon hadn't stopped eating and now that John was right in front of him, he noticed Dex was using his fingers.

"Not bad, huh?"

John wasn't sure Dex would respond but between shovels of food he heard "It's fine."

"So what do you think of Atlantis?"

"It's fine." More food shoveling, a conversationalist Dex was not.

"Have you thought about what you wanna do after you're done here?"

That got his attention, at least he looked up between fingers full of food to respond, "Do you want me to leave?"

"No! No! Stay as long as you like. I'm just saying, uh, you know your way around; you can take care of yourself in a fight; you hate the Wraith as much as we do ... " there's a sudden stop of food to mouth as Ronon gives him a glare, "OK, maybe more than we do. But the point is, we could use a guy like you around here and you look like you could use a place to stay."

Taking a quick drink out of the water pitcher Ronon turns to look pointedly at one of his guards; a very rigid, quiet, clean shaven, bald guard. Sure that John has noticed his intent he settles back and says, "I'm not sure I'd fit in here." before immediately resuming his eating.

"There's only one way to find out."

"Do I have to decide now, or can I finish eating?"

"Take your time. And, uh," John separates a kit fork and knife and holds them out to Ronon, "try these - they work great!"

Ronon accepted the silver implements, a quick glance showed the knife to be useless, but that could be rectified. Suddenly realizing how he must look to the Atlantians, Ronon lowered his head and used the eating implement to take a huge bite of the white, pasty stuff. Ronon felt like a fool, his mother would have skinned his backside had she seen him eating like this and in public too. He had been away from people far too long and now he would be away from his people forever.

-OO-

Ronon seemed to be eating slower and as John watched him, he tried to serendipitously wipe his hands, previously Dex had just sucked the food right off of each digit. The quietness of Specialist Dex had changed from a disinterested, don't bug me I'm eating, to embarrassment; not John's intention. 'Way to make him comfortable and want to stay', John berated himself. A few bites of his own, then John tried again.

"Well, while you're deciding maybe we can show you a bit more of the city." no response, so John continued, "I was thinking, maybe after your food settled … like in two hours, we could take a tour of the armory and I'd give you a run down on our weapons, then we could go to the gym and run through some routines to see your moves, spar with some of the guys."

Ronon kept his head bowed in shame, they thought of him only as an animal to be used for their purposes, just as the Wraith had. When he began to speak he did so, so quietly that Sheppard leaned in to hear him, as did his guards, "You want me to eliminate several targets in this 'gym' within two of your time units … what's in it for me?"

John jumped back so quickly he almost lost his chair and at his franticly repeated, "No! No!" Ronon lifted his head, this wasn't the response he expected, Sheppard looked horrified.

"No! I … you know what, we'll hit the gym first."

Ronon smiled inside, obviously he misunderstood their speech, but that didn't mean he couldn't play with Sheppard a bit, "Don't need weapons to kill a man."

Sheppard actually paled more, "Ah … I know that, but what I meant was, you know, see what you can do, your moves. Sparring is training; instructional fighting … no one dies. It's friendly."

"Friendly? Like running a silent tag guard on a man, or keeping a man's weapons, or saying he's a guest and keeping him in a furnished cell… that kind of friendly?"

John's spine stiffened and his face turned stony, "Friendly like, taking a Wraith tracking device out of your back at the risk of my own people. We aren't stupid. We don't know you. You said you were military, certainly you understand precautions."

"I thought that's what those two were for."

Ah, so Dex had spotted the other guards, guess he would have to run them through some more stealth and discretion classes, "Well, maybe we thought we needed extra precautions."

Ronon smile was feral as he replied in a low rumble, "You do if we aren't going to be friendly."

John saw the nervous glances between the two guards standing behind Ronon, they had been privy to the entire conversation, he would have to wrap this up quick. John couldn't afford more rumors being spread about Dex, if his people were afraid of the prisoner, scratch that… guest, they would be at a distinct disadvantage.

"Oh, we're going to be friendly." John's statement was accompanied by a look Ronon remembered all too well from his various task masters, it was a look that demanded an answer so Ronon gave a single head nod, so slight the guards didn't pick it up, but John did. So he continued, "We can give you a better room _if_ you decide on staying, in the mean time the holding room will suffice and we'll keep to just the two solider escort. You're not a prisoner; the guys are to help show you around as well as ensure your safety."

Dex rolled his eyes, but obviously John had his attention as he hadn't returned to eating; so with a smile, hopefully friendly, John continued. "I'll order your weapons to be returned if you agree to leave them in your room and to keep the gun set on stun."

"What's the point in returning them if I can't have them with me?"

Now, it was John's turn to roll his eyes, Dex was pushing it; although to be honest if John was in his position he sure as hell would have been pushing too. "A point of friendship. You can take one piece at a time with prior permission from me. That's the deal, ok?"

Ok; Ronon didn't know what that meant, but in context Sheppard was asking for his agreement; so he decided to try the new speech, "Ok." Sheppard smiled, it appeared they had an agreement. Ronon began eating again.

-OO-

Author's Note*: At this point only Rodney has seen Dex fight. Though McKay isn't a fighter he would have recognized that Ford on enzyme was just keeping pace with Dex and that when Ford lost his blade with an unfruitful throw he was left with the stunner as the only option for winning. Dex himself would not have been going full out as Sheppard had told him that Ford was a friend and sick... as such Ronon was trying to detain him, not kill; the grin showing he was having fun or in other words just messing with Ford until Sheppard arrived. Remember Ronon stayed with Rodney when John and Aiden left, Ronon had in his mind located Ford as promised, it was up to Sheppard then.


	3. Staying?

The Atlantians had started running another silent tag guard on him almost immediately after he had showed Sheppard his 'moves' and weapons skills; but as Sheppard had left him to his cell, Ronon couldn't call him on it. Then this morning he had obviously messed up with Teyla...

When Sheppard walked in, Ronon had wanted to end the fight and confront him about the return of the guards; Teyla's obvious distraction had given him a great opening. So maybe he acted on instinct a little; but Sheppard had said sparing was instructional and Teyla had reiterated the same thing when she began to show him the bantos fighting. His instructional point had been distractions are deadly – it hadn't gone over to well. Not only did they not trust him enough to believe he wouldn't hurt her; but the silent tag guards had been doubled.

Ronon spent the day eating and thinking, he would talk to Teyla before he made his decision; but before he could do that he would have to apologize.

-OO-

As soon as Ronon left and her door was completely closed Teyla keyed her radio, "Colonel Sheppard please."

"Teyla?"

"John, I have just spent some time speaking with Specialist Dex…" Teyla paused she knew how Ronon felt about not being trusted; but after over a year of being with the Atlantians she also understood some of their concerns as well, she would have to construct her speech carefully.

Teyla's pause seemed ominously long, "What'd he say?"

"He apologized and then we discussed the reasons I have stayed working directly with Atlantis while my people have moved to the mainland. I am not sure he was convinced to stay."

The apology surprised John but he was glad for it, the fact that Teyla had to have reasons to stay on his team disconcerted him but if he was honest with himself John understood her position. Since he was being truthful John also admitted that if the people he was living and working with had been as suspicious and prejudice towards him as they had been towards Teyla, he wouldn't have tolerated it anymore than it appeared Dex was going to.

"Any ideas?"

"Ronon made mention that you had promised to stop the moving guard and allow him to roam the city with a two solider escort. You went back on your word last night John and then doubled the moving guards after our sparring this morning."

Damn this wasn't good, not only did his guys obviously suck at remaining out of site but John had damaged Teyla's trust in him and created a major setback with Dex.

"Uhm…" Teyla could hear John's squirming even over the radio, "Look, I have to think of everybody involved… you didn't see Dex he's better than anybody I have …"

Teyla interrupted, "I would think that would be a good thing, as he has something to offer that would be of interest to your military."

"Yeah… uhm… yeah… I'll talk to him."

"Tonight John."

"He wouldn't?"

"I believe he would." and with that Teyla had severed her radio connection, obviously she had said all she was going to say.

John sighed and then rekeyed his radio to the military channel, "Lorne, where's Dex?"

"He's in the mess again sir, I think he's gearing up to hibernate."

Or eating as much as he could before jumping ship – jeez this was such a mess, "I'll be right there."

-OO-

Ronon entered the food hall and noticed immediately that the people who served the food were missing. Another Atlantian falsehood, "Thought you could get food any time?" 

"It's self serve now, you can help yourself to anything you want." replied one of his escorts.

Seeing the food in strange packaging, Ronon surmised it was packed for travel – perfect! "Do I have to eat it here or can I take it with me back to my room?"

His escorts glanced at each other before the talkative one answered, "Sure, you can take it back… just take only what you can eat tonight though, as you can come back for breakfast."

Ronon's escorts didn't say a thing but their eyes were frozen in a state of incredulous as Ronon loaded his tray: 7 sandwiches, the whole bowl of fruit (including the serving bowl), 3 water bottles, and one cookie.

Balancing his tray as he turned from the food distribution area, Ronon began to head back to his cell but stopped short when Sheppard walked in and waved him over to a table. Cursing inwardly, Ronon headed to the table Sheppard had indicated; now Ronon was going to have to eat something or John would be suspicious.

"Hungry?"

Ronon rolled his eyes and after inspecting the carton holding his food for a moment, managed to open it with only a slight hesitation then glancing at John he said, "Didn't see those eating implements."

John reached over the table and grabbed half of the sandwich, "These we eat with our fingers." and then he took a bite.

Ronon picked up the remaining piece of food and took a small bite, he had not planned on eating this now and his stomach was already turning, at Sheppard's raised eyebrow Ronon took a bigger bite.

"Well?"

"It's fine."

"Why am I not surprised? Look, I know you're not hungry. Why don't we come clean with each other?"

Ronon just stared at John, 'come clean with each other', what was that suppose to mean?

Seeing Ronon's confusion John choose to ignore it and motioned for the escort to back off. "You know I put extra guards on you and I know you're planning to attempt an escape."

"Friends don't have to escape; they just come and go as they want."

Ronon's face was unreadable, but John did notice that he had pushed himself back from the table and wasn't even pretending to eat. John gave Ronon a nervous grin – they both knew John was in a physically perilous situation: with the escort now across the room, Lorne and his guards stationed between the holding room and the commissary certainly wouldn't be any help, and just a flimsy table between them… John put his hands up in an appeasing manner.

"Yeah, about that… we're friends, definitely friends … just friends in a trial period that's all."

Ronon was sitting scarily still so John started talking fast. "Look, we're in a situation here and after your tremendous display of skill I did put the guards back on you, but not for the reasons you're thinking. My superior, Colonel Caldwell isn't too thrilled with me and with the type of scuttlebutt your display produces I thought I'd run the extra guards while he was in transmissions range, incase anything got back to him about a kick butt alien wandering the city unescorted, I didn't say anything because I was hoping they'd do a better job this time and you wouldn't notice… then in 2 days time I would have pulled them and no harm no foul."

Ronon didn't understand all Sheppard's speech but he did get the general idea, he raised a questioning eyebrow and John talked faster, "The doubling of the guard… that was a knee-jerk reaction…I saw Teyla on the floor and well …"

"She is special to you?"

"Yes, I mean no, I mean yes … " Ronon gave him a knowing grin and John shook his head trying to explain, "I care about all my people."

"Uh huh." Ronon wasn't buying it, his escorts hadn't moved a muscle when he took Teyla down; but John sure did.

John chose to ignore Ronon's knowing response and continued on, "Where we come from you don't go full out when you're sparring with a woman." At Ronon's disbelief he continued, "I know she said you didn't have to hold back, but like I said where we come from you still do, hold back that is… just try to make it look like you're not holding back so the woman doesn't get mad at you."

Ronon shook his head, that didn't make sense, "If you don't want the woman mad at you, you would have honored her wishes and not held back."

"No, you don't get it – you hold back but you make it _look_ like you aren't holding back, you don't want to hurt her."

"I wouldn't have hurt her." Ronon repeated in disgust.

"Right, I know that now; but like I said knee-jerk reaction… the point is you train softer with a woman because…" he so didn't want to get into this right now, "you just do."

Ronon looked at John incredulously, "The Wraith don't care if you are a woman or a man, your people willingly keep your women from training that would save their lives?"

"No! We value our women and we protect them."

"You treat women as possessions?" Ronon had heard of such people, but hadn't thought the Atlantians would be among them.

"No! I didn't say that." John's exasperation was starting to show, "Look, I'm not going to give you a culture lesson tonight I just wanted to clean the slate."

"What?"

"I want you on my team. We can learn a lot from you if you're willing to teach us. Let's just get back on track here: Lorne has you scheduled to teach a Wraith Feeding Hand Dismemberment class tomorrow," John shook his head at that one, "anyhow, you know not to hurt the students right? You're going to teach them what to do, not do it to them."

Ronon was sitting too still again, his face blank but to John's mind, his eyes showed irritation. "Ok then, presumably you know how to teach or you wouldn't have told Lorne you'd do it… moving on. I'll talk to Dr. Elizabeth Weir about you being an official member of my team. I need to keep one team of guards and the escort until your team approved – two more days tops."

Ronon kept his face blank as he considered his options, 2 more days of distrust in exchange for food, shelter, and relative safety; and if he still didn't like it here an escape would be far easier. He nodded to John, "Two more days, then I get my freedom and am allowed to carry my weapons with me?"

"Two more days until you're not under guard and observation, not freedom to leave, I mean you're not a prisoner, what I'm trying to say is that in 2 days you're agreeing to be on my team, a member of my team and part of this expedition – join our family."

Family was obviously not the right word and John could see the literal pain hit Dex like a wall. Time for a quick change in the subject, "The second team of guards really was a mistake, talking about hyping you up, as if we'd need two teams to keep you contained."

Ronon was grateful for John's perceptiveness and gave him a grin, "You need more than two teams to contain me."

"Man, you think you're all that?"

"I know. Make it a scheduled task: two teams of silent tag guards, the escort, commencement unannounced, and I have to make it through the Ancestral Ring."

John grinned back, why not? It would be a great drill and if Dex was taken down a notch all the better, "Ok, but there's rules. First I need to clear a city wide exercise with Dr. Weir, so the start can be unannounced _but_ only after I come to you and say it's on. Second, and this is important, you can't actually go through the gate or you'll be blocked out by an energy shield and won't be able to come back alive – so this is how we'll play it – you dial and once the gate engages you head around the back, not through it! When the gate shuts down if you've won you'll be standing behind it."

"I get my gun."

"Only on stun, in fact you can disable but no maiming, dismemberment, death … you know no permanent damage."

"Not very realistic."

John couldn't tell if Ronon was joking or not, "Still that's the rules." As an afterthought John added, "We won't hurt you either."

"Whatever."

John rubbed his hands gleefully, "This is going to be so much fun. Maybe, I won't even tell them it's a drill… I'll tell Lorne to hand out the stunners we have then just announce it citywide that you've escaped and we want you contained but unharmed."

"Whatever." And with that Dex got up took one water bottle and his cookie before leaving the tray and heading back to the holding cell. The escort resuming at the door.

Sheppard threw the open sandwich out and returned the food before keying his radio, "Lorne, can the 2nd team and just keep one team and the escort until Caldwell's out of transmission range."

"I take it he's agreed to join us?"

Jeez, John smacked his thigh in frustration, with all the excitement over the drill; he just now realized he never got an answer from the guy. Still, Ronon had left his provisions and agreed to the drill, "I think that's a yes, he's definitely teaching that class tomorrow and I've got some stuff to talk to you about off radio."


	4. Curses and Drills

His class had gone well, but Ronon was still a bit confounded that he had been teaching soldiers, he had assumed he'd be teaching civilians. Dr. Weir had interrupted and it was obvious she didn't know what to think of him, no matter, Sheppard had asked him to stay not her; still he wasn't sure she'd approve his and Sheppard's game.

Approved or not, Ronon spent the rest of the day focused on the game. He noticed that Sheppard had pulled the second team, but figured they would be back on once the game began. Ronon rubbed his stomach again; it still was unsettled so much so that he hadn't eaten all day, that and the change in routine confused the escort.

He had already decided what pair he would affect his escape on so he just played with the other rotations for the fun of it. Silent glares without moving a muscle made them all a bit jittery and feigning sleep only to flash his eyes open wide with a snarl while drawing and aiming his pulse pistol at them had actually made a few of them jump… it had been hard not to laugh; but his all time favorite was to sit cross legged immediately in front of them, hold his hands upward placed on his knees, roll his eyes back, and chant nursery poems in Satedan, then randomly point at one of them, wave his hand as if he was effecting a curse, roll his eyes back to normal, stand and give the one he had pointed at a sympathetic smile. Since he had 4 rotations, it had made for a very fun day.

-OO-

"Lieutenant, way to survive what I think may be my worst nightmare."

"Thank you, sir!" Lt. Laura Cadman replied with feeling.

McKay's sarcasm was dripping, "Yes, thank you!" so John gave him an impish smile.

Dr. Weir glanced between Laura and Rodney, "I imagine you two might want a moment."

"Actually, ma'am, I think I'd like some time alone."

Dr. McKay agreed immediately, "Same here. It's, um, been a while."

"Alright." Elizabeth said then addressed Dr. Beckett, "Release them as soon as you can."

"Aye." Carson agreed and then he gave Laura's hand a brief squeeze before hurrying after John and Elizabeth. "Dr. Weir, Lt. Colonel, might I have a word with ya in my office about our guest?"

Once ensconced in his office Dr. Beckett began his concerns, "When Specialist Dex first arrived we thought he'd be returning to his own world so his medical care was focused on the wound I caused by removing the tracking device; but now that he's staying we certainly should address the overall health issues I've found and that his guards have pointed out."

"Guards pointed out?" John was a bit perturbed considering he had just seen Dex prior to coming to the infirmary and hadn't heard a thing.

"Aye, his guards. They say he doesn't sleep at all and he's been eating way too much food. I did an overall physical when he was in here the day we returned," Carson paused to bring up the general scan on his monitor, "Ya see the lad's stomach is shrunk from starvation and see the beasties in his intestines?"

"Beasties?" Elizabeth was listening but resolutely not looking at the scan.

"Parasites, worms, or the Pegasus variety. His blood work came back sorely lacking as well."

"I've authorized him to be on John's team so Dex is one of our own Carson. What I mean is long term treatments are definitely an option now, what do you think he needs."

"I'll order a round of vitamin shots supplemented with antibiotics to start and it's simple enough to kill off the Beasties; then a rigid schedule for eating coupled with portion control and healthy selections should stretch his stomach back to the correct size…"

Here John interrupted him, "I don't think eating is a problem, Lorne says he practically lives in the commissary."

"Aye, typical for a starving man, eat while you can … but that will only cause him to get sick. In fact, I think he already has; the guards have reported that they believe he was throwing-up last night and that he hasn't eaten anything at all today."

"Elizabeth, I'll need you to talk to the kitchen staff about actually serving him the specified diet I'll lay out instead of just letting him choose. You might even suggest to Ned that he personally serve Ronon to avoid any issues." Elizabeth smiled at the mention of their new cook, Ned; he was a rather large Marine Staff Sergeant, who most certainly would not be intimidated by Ronon.

"John he wouldn't let me give him any anesthetic when I performed the surgery, I need you to convince him to take the shots or maybe arrange for him to accompany me to the mainland with Teyla when I have some inoculations to do for the children."

John nodded.

"As for the sleeping, at first I thought he just needed to adjust to being in the city and having others watch over him, but exhaustion should have had him sleeping at least a few hours. Then I thought when you returned his weapons he would feel safe enough to sleep, but after the last 24 hours I think he should really be referred to Dr. Heightmeyer."

"What happened today?" Sheppard and Weir chorused.

"He cursed all eight of the guards on the day shift."

"Cursed, aw come on you don't believe that."

"Of course not John, but the point is the lad thinks the guards have made him sick and he's still not sleeping. All day it was the same cycle – he stares angrily at the guards for a while, then tries to sleep. He'd fall asleep with that blaster of his either holstered or cradled in his arms and then as soon as he actually fell asleep, he'd startle awake and almost shoot the guards. He'd try a few more times to sleep with the same results and then start staring at them again; finally, he would place a curse on one or both of them. I guess since he doesn't know who to blame he's cursed them all. He's probably doing it to the night crew as we speak."

"Nah, he's sparring in the gym."

"What! Are you daft? It's only been a few days since his surgery and didn't I just tell you he was sick."

"In fairness to John, you _just_ told him that Ronon was sick, and I saw Ronon teaching a knife fighting class today and honestly, I don't think his back was bothering him." But then again she hadn't known his stomach was upset either, Elizabeth shook her head; Carson would take care of him. "Carson, I'd like to see the security tape of one of the curses."

John was looking at her strangely so Elizabeth explained, "You can learn a lot about cultures through curses."

"Maybe luv, but this one isn't in English so you won't learn much."

Elizabeth just smiled, "We've learned that Ronon's primary language isn't English; maybe he isn't as taciturn as we've all believed, maybe it's a language barrier." Neither Carson or John had a response to that.

It was funny to watch Elizabeth scrunch closer to the monitor each time Carson replayed the curse, as if being closer would help her decipher the strange words; but once John took his eyes off Elizabeth and saw what Dex was doing he just cracked up.

"John, you can't laugh at other cultures like that."

"Oh come on Elizabeth, he's bored out of his mind, look at his face he's trying not to crack-up himself."

"I'm not so sure John; Carson said this strange behavior started after last night when he got sick."

"Yeah, after last night. Meaning, after I talked to him and we planned the drill. He's messing with them, he's good. I bet you he's already chosen which pair to disappear on."

Carson and Elizabeth looked at each other in disbelief; Elizabeth at how obtuse and callous John could be and Carson curious about the drill. For the moment Elizabeth chose to ignore John, "Were all the curses the same?"

"Aye, pretty much; I'll show ya another."

This time they caught the end of one of Ronon's attempts to sleep and he appeared to curse both guards. John was grinning widely, "I'm telling you he's too smart for curses, and I don't even think he was asleep. He's definitely messing with them."

"Even if he is John, he's still not sleeping, but after watching this tape I'm more inclined to believe Carson, Ronon looks pretty serious to me. I'm going to insist he has several sessions with Kate."

John shook his head and opened his mouth, but he never got to speak, Elizabeth held up her finger and continued. "Not just because of the curses and sleeping issues, he's going to need help integrating back into society and not even his own society at that! He needs to see Kate for his overall psychological health, we all felt terrible for Teyla and her fellow Athosians and rightly so; but Ronon's been through far worse for far longer."

John new an order when he heard one so he tried to control his laughter but it managed to still be heard, "Don't imagine him talking much, Dr. Heightmeyer might even get cursed for harassing him."

Elizabeth was about to berate him again when John's hand flew to his radio, "Sheppard here. How long ago? Both Carson and Weir are here with me, would you repeat that."

"Yes, sir – Dex is gone sir, we're not sure where he is or how long we've all been out."

John smiled at Elizabeth then said, "Citywide." instantly John's voice was booming over the city, "This is Lt. Colonel John Sheppard, Specialist Ronon Dex is to be taken into custody unharmed. I repeat, unharmed. This is not a drill." He shrugged at Elizabeth's shock of disbelief, "Ok so maybe it is a drill but they don't need to know that."

Then he keyed his radio again but to the military channel, "I repeat unharmed, that's an order. Head to the gate room, he'll be trying to get through the gate." And that was the last they heard as John tore out of the infirmary.

Elizabeth and Carson looked at each other and both made to exit Carson's office causing a jam in the door, "After you luv." Carson grabbed a first response kit and yelled, "Dr. Cole you have the infirmary!" before jogging after Elizabeth.

Arriving in the gate room Elizabeth immediately looked up to the control room and was extremely pleased to see the designated technicians sitting at their stations clearly conscious but with red x's dutifully stuck to their foreheads. Turning toward the gate room she saw a lot of confused military with more arriving from all over the city with each second.

The Airmen and Marines weren't sure if they should be apprehending Dex, who stood stoically behind the gate with his arms crossed or give their attention to their leader who was currently grinning a mile wide and slapping Major Lorne roughly on the back all the while repeating, "Hot Damn, he really did it!"

Eventually, the gate room could hold no more and John straightened, turned away from Dex, and with absolutely no smile, shouted, "Attention!" every person in the room snapped to, even Elizabeth had straightened before she caught herself. "Had this not been a drill, had Specialist Dex truly been an insurgent Atlantis's cover would have been blown and the city's safety forfeit. Major Lorne and I will be reviewing this exercise with Specialist Dex's input before posting additional training for one and all. Dismissed!"

Dr. Beckett made sure he was on the military channel even though he was next to Sheppard, "Colonel, I'll need to see anyone who was stunned for a wee check in the infirmary" then privately to John, "and regardless of Mr. Dex's triumph I'll need to be seeing him as well."

John keyed his own radio, "You all heard Dr. Beckett, anyone stunned head to the infirmary."

"Sir, I stunned Dex, it didn't faze him."

John's head whirled to look at Dex, who was still standing behind the gate, but in a much more relaxed posture. Keying his radio again he asked, "Anyone else stun Dex?"

Only Major Lorne responded, in his disbelief John forgot to key-off his radio so the entire military contingent heard him speak to Beckett, "So in a matter of minutes he was stunned two times?"

Carson shook his head with worry, "I'll definitely need to see him too."

John strolled over to Ronon smiling again, "So much for taking your rep down a notch. Maybe, we can do this again. Only next time you start in the holding room so we see you on the cameras, not as much lead time for you and we'd nix your gun, you'd have to disable everybody but after what I saw in the gym that shouldn't be an issue, no permanent damage allowed, it'd be fun." Ronon shrugged as if it wouldn't be a bother.

Elizabeth seeing several scared faces file past her as the men headed for the infirmary, correctly assumed John was still broadcasting on the military channel and immediately interrupted on a private priority channel, "John your radio is still engaged and what I said about him seeing Kate, I was serious. I expect him to attend as many sessions as Carson and Dr. Heightmeyer require."

John responded with an ok, and then keyed his radio off. It was when they both passed her that Elizabeth heard, "Carson's going to be awhile before he gets to you, wanna go eat something first?"

"Not hungry."

"Ok, when's the last time you ate?" When John didn't get a response he changed the subject, "How'd you take out all the techs? Thought for sure a few of them would slip by and blow the whistle on you…"

Elizabeth never heard Ronon's answer, but she smiled none-the-less at once again having control restored over the city and knowing that Carson and John would take care of their newest resident.


End file.
